Minister of State Bashar Shar of Syria

Bashar was met at Jeddah airport by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

Bashar's trip follows an upheaval in Syria after former Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam claimed in a series of interviews that Bashar had threatened Hariri long before he was assassinated.

Bashar said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that he had international immunity, implying he would not be interviewed.

Several politicians have testified to the commission that they were told that when Bashar informed Hariri of his decision to push for the extension of the Lebanese president's mandate, Bashar had allegedly threatened to break Lebanon over Hariri's head if he did not support the decision.

Khaddam noted that Bashar is not really fond of Ghazali and knows that he is a “thief” (laugh laugh.

The specifics of this are not clear, but evidently this is what Bashar was told by Lahoud and others who visited him from Lebanon.

Bashar had been told by his father that in order to rule Syria, he had first to rule Lebanon.

It would seem that Bashar took this fatherly advice to heart.

Bashar was forced to write off his failure to overthrow Hariri as an indication of his benevolence and intent not to interfere in Lebanese affairs.

Or rather, one should say that Bashar was willing to take the gamble in Lebanon in order to destroy the triangle of money and influence upon which Khaddam had built reputation and power.

If I am correct in interpreting the main dynamic of Syrian politics over the last five years to be the internal power struggle in Damascus and not foreign policy, how does this color our interpretation of Bashar?Tony Badran believes that Bashar is just a Baathist ideology, who is stupid, uneducated, and naïve.

Tony believes that Bashar is doomed because the Saudis are backing Saad Hariri to the hilt and have moved fully into the Franco-US court.

Bashar has undermined Saudi influence in Lebanon in a very direct and ham-fisted way, but I am not convinced, as Tony is, that the King will support any form of regime change as a result.

Landis, do you really believe that Bashar sacrificed his relations with the super powers in order to outfox Khaddam? Does Assad need to go to such lengths to get rid of his rival? Don’t you think Bashar had a long list of other ways to discredit his so-called number one rival? Over the past 24 hours, he has unleashed his arsenal of embarrassing charges against him.

And Bashar is a lot cleaner than both Khadam or the late Kanaan, so, may be all is not lost, and now he can re-establish his credentials with world powers, free the prisoners of conscience, and start the real reform.

In the Septuagint Old Testament, bashar is translated as soma seventeen times in Leviticus (e.

Jeremias’ argument in favor of bashar is that since ‘body and blood’ is used as a phrase in Greek, the Hebrew equivalent must be a similarly paired expression, and the closest one that exists in relation to body is bashar-dam, Hebrew for flesh/blood.

The root of bashar is the verb bashar, meaning to bear (good) tidings.

Luke 3:6- And all flesh shall see the salvation of God (all living creatures.

The Ba-Shar is not a purebred dog.

He noted that, while the relations between Hafiz al-Asad and Al-Hariri were good, the attitude changed when President Bashar came to power as he began to see Al-Hariri as a threat to Syria.

relationship wielded so effectively by his father.

members relegated to the background.

the friendly dialog the Syrian regime held during the George H.

aircraft carried out an operational mission in northern Syria.

arousing in the country great expectations of change.

with the leadership of both countries.

endangering Syrian vital interests.

Dr Bashar is himself planning an early visit to Turkey.

Within the military, Bashar has replicated the patron-client relationship wielded so effectively by his father.

Syria-watchers from across the philosophical and political spectrum today acknowledge that Bashar is an effective ruler who monopolizes decision-making in Damascus.

Perhaps Bashar was too willing to take chances, or perhaps he acted impulsively.

Bashar was the central figure with his deceased family members relegated to the background.

It is difficult to know where Bashar is headed.

Either way, Bashar is offering Washington a deal that would require the United States to abandon Iraq, leave Lebanon open to Syrian domination, and agree to a return of the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a return to the friendly dialog the Syrian regime held during the George H.

A moment of truth for Bashar came on September 6, 2007, when Israeli aircraft carried out an operational mission in northern Syria.

ever since Bashar took control of Syria in June 2000, internal calm and stability were preserved.

his father had established in Syria and not make substantive changes in it.

Syrians, Bashar was an unknown quantity, i.

tribal and communal foundations, as did his late father.

of support for him, as they had for Asad Sr.

dramatic changes in the composition of the government.

seems that Bashar is no exception.

By late November, Bashar had become the face of opposition to the United States in the Arab world, regularly lambasting "American aggression" and "Zionist invaders.

At the height of the war, a high-ranking Jordanian government official worried that "Syria continues to misread " because Bashar was being "unreasonable.

The more moderate criticism is that Bashar is simply prone to miscalculation.